As the old order changes yielding place to the old in the Congress in Goa, the party is clutching at straws for a semblance of relevance when the lights are really going off one by one in the room.
To start with, only if it is just to get the wheels working, the party and the legislature party can meet, not once, not twice but very very often, perhaps even once a week, to have conversations without any agenda. It doesn’t need to say it needs to introspect which means it has not. It needs its leaders to meet, catch up, get to reconnect with each other, not through press conferences and meetings but as people and ask each other what does it mean to be still in the Congress.
The leadership of the Congress, young, old, in the picture and forgotten needs to do nothing but get to know each other better again. The Congress needs to reboot completely, change the mother board if necessary and reconfigure by asking these questions to each other
a) What is the kind of Goa you want to see today and what will you genuinely do towards this end?
b) Do you still want to be a full time Congressman or woman, devoting your entire, time and energy towards the party leaving your other business and commercial interests aside?
c) Are you aware that age and time waits for no one and while your muscles will reach a stage of atrophy, your Congress party too will if you do not get a fresh infusion of youngsters committed to the party. Will you be willing to initiate, lead and participate in a membership drive, training and mentoring at least ten young people who can be the new leadership in the next decade or two?
d) Are you willing to construct an action plan which is not vague and broad based but looks at just ten key issues plaguing Goa and set up a dedicated task force for each of these issues, which has a one year time frame to study, research take the help of experts and offer a solutions. Waste Management, the Regional Plan, the policy towards a new airport or the expansion of Dabolim or for that matter even justifying the Mopa airport are four of the ten issues on which a task force should be constituted immediately. The other six should include mining, economy and jobs, transport, urban planning, the entire gamut of environment including coastal zone violations and tourism?
e) Are you then willing to divide half your day on party development- point c above- and state development-part d above?
Those who say yes to point b, c and d and e above, and ensure that the success of efforts in this direction will give us the Goa each one wants- in response to point a- should be retained in the party and given responsibilities according to seniority, experience and energy.
While this is going on, the offshoot of this should be a clear party policy outlined and enshrined in a document which will be the Bible of both the GPCC and the CLP. For instance the party has to take a clear party line on the Mopa airport issue. After all the Congress is an organization and the organisations needs are bigger than individual needs. Look the BJP for instance. While many, including, Herald has strongly criticized the unilateral manner in which the Mopa airport project has been pushed through, one has to admit that there is no ambiguity on the part of the BJP. The Chief Minister’s line is the party line and there are no dissenting voices in public. Those who do not agree are keeping quiet. While that is mainly due to an approach which is dictatorial and not democratic, the Congress needs to speak in one voice on issues, irrespective of the approach it takes to arrive at that decision.
In case you haven’t noticed, this editorial does not mention the name of a single Congressman. That is for two reasons. Firstly, the Congress has for far too long been about individuals. There is no space for individuals now. The second reason is that the Congress does not have Congressmen of the kind needed to make it the party it once was. If it begins to do the things suggested, the people who do it can start calling themselves Congressmen again.
